Entries by Administrator

Barrow County’s elementary schools continue to outpace the state in Milestones testing, but the results at the high school are more mixed.
The county’s overall scores in English and math “took a step backward,” Jennie Persinger, testing and data coordinator for the district, told the board. Barrow County scored three points less in English and one point less in math than in 2017.
“While blind standardized state testing and the resulting scores are certainly not the best measure for capturing the growth and success of our non-standardized students nor the expertise and effort of our teachers by any means, I am pleased overall with these results,” superintendent Chris McMichael said. “We still have some work to do in several areas certainly.”
Individual performances on the Milestones are classified into one of four categories of student categories: beginning, developing, proficient, or distinguished.
Students in grades 3, 5 and 8 must meet basic competence in reading to be recommended for promotion to the next grade, and students in fifth and eighth grades must do the same in mathematics.
At the elementary level, students outscored the state average in 15 of 16 categories involving English, math, science and social studies — when calculating the scores for three of the four categories.
In the “proficient” level — students who made scores at the proficient or distinguished levels — Barrow County scored above the state average in nine areas for grades 3-8 and below the state in seven areas. Barrow County opened a new elementary school this year — Winder Elementary — so the test scores are not comparable to 2017. At the high schools, students scored higher than the state average in only three of eight test areas, but the 2018 results were better in four tests — algebra I, biology, U.S. history and economics and the same in ninth-grade literature.
The state averages were better at the high school level in ninth-grade literature, American literature, algebra I, physical science, U.S. history. Barrow students beat the state averages in biology, geometry and economics.
Lynn Stevens, vice chair, and Garey Huff Sr. asked for more detailed reports — by school level and tests.
Matt Thompson, director of student data and services, said that could be done in one or two months.
Persinger also presented information about Advance Placement exams.
The district has improved its percentage of students who score 3 or higher – the level at which college credit is usually awarded – since 2015.
That also is the year the district had more students take AP exams than any other.
The number of exams taken also have increased. The high year was 2015 with 884 exams taken. In 2018, the number was 781.

The Statham City Council unanimously approved a new water rate with Barrow County Monday — a gamble that it can maintain its water supply most of the time.
The new rate will be $5.15 per 1,000 gallons of water with no commitment from the city to buy any water.
The city agreed to a new contract with Barrow County for its second source of water. The contract allows the county to increase rates on an annual basis.
Barrow County proposed a contract that would have required Statham to buy 300,000 gallons of water per month at a rate of $4.62 per 1,000 gallons.
The old rate for water was $2.94 per 1,000 gallons of water. The city did not have to pay the county unless it used water.
Statham’s primary water source has been a spring in the city for years.
The city pays for water from Barrow County monthly. For Fiscal Year 2018, which ended June 30, the city paid a wide range of bills — from nothing for two months to more than $5 million per month for May and June.
The city has problems with its water supply and with parts for its pump system during those months.
The city bought 18.3 million gallons of water from Barrow County during FY 2018. It cost $53,848. That same amount of water under the new contract would cost more than $94,000.
Jordan McDaniel, interim director of the water department, recommended the $5.15 rate because it does not have a minimum required purchase of water.
Eddie Jackson made the motion to approve the contact, saying it is a “no brainer.”
Michelle Irizarry, the city administrator, said the county no longer can use SPLOST — special-purpose local-option sales tax — to pay debt service on its $1.2 million portion of the water it receives and Bear Creek Reservoir expenses from the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority. UOBWA is a four-county group that operates the reservoir and water plant. Barrow, Jackson and Oconee counties share the water plant. Athens-Clarke County buys raw water from the reservoir.
Barrow County has used a portion of the SPLOST proceeds to pay its debt service. Winder, the largest city in the county, has refused to agree to that provision in the new SPLOST.
Irizarry said similar agreements went to all the cities in the county. No Statham council members complained about the increase or raised the questions of SPLOST or county debt.

A former Auburn police officer was sentenced to nine years in prison Monday for his involvement in an extortion ring that targeted drug traffickers.
According to a news release from the Northern District of Georgia division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Charles Hubbard, of Loganville, also received three years of supervised release after the nine-year term. Five other people have been sentenced and another one is scheduled to be sentenced later this month for their involvement in the nearly eight-year scheme, which was aimed at extorting and robbing drug traffickers.
Hubbard was arrested on April 4, 2016 during a Drug Enforcement Administration sting at an apartment complex, where Hubbard met a confidential DEA source and accepted $40,000 before dividing it with two other co-conspirators. Hubbard was found with $20,000 in his vehicle.
Hubbard pled guilty last year to conspiracy to obtain property by extortion under cover of official right and conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute.
The case was investigated by the Atlanta-Carolinas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program and the DEA, along with assistance from the Georgia State Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Shame, shame, shame on the both the Republicans and the Democrats!
Once again they have demonstrated a good reason to have limited terms.
The pork is in the pot and it’s called “earmarks.”
“Earmarks” are defined as a provision that allows discretionary spending of funds to specific recipients while circumventing the competitive funds allocation process and established procedures.
Two primary examples of earmarks in this year’s budget are under defense spending.
In the pork barrel is $2.7 billion for 20 additional F-35 fighter jets which have yet to meet major production standards and the program has left a trail of performance issues, excessive cost over-runs and delays.
Congress also gave an additional $593 million to upgrade the Abrams MI battle tank even though the Pentagon opposed the project.
The Pentagon says it has over 2,000 Abram tanks parked in the desert because it doesn’t need them at this time.
The Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) recently released its complete 2018 list of pork barrel projects and spending, considered by many to be a waste of taxpayer monies.
If you recall, Congress, in February, supported and voted for the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.
That set in motion a plan to exceed the spending caps established by Congress in the 2011 Budget Control Act and increased 2018 spending by $143 billion more than 2017.
CAGW, after hours upon hours of studying the budget, has identified and exposed 232 earmarks in the new budget, some of which were craftily hidden behind layers and layers of word-smithing.
Even though Congress has tried many times to restrain their spending, the budget process gains steam every year and turns into a runaway freight train. Citizens, along with a number of Congressional members, take the position that earmarks simply increase the risk of corruption and certainly waste.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) recently wrote regarding earmarks, “Congress needs to assert its power of the purse, but not in this manner.”
Even more than 190 years ago, our national leadership foresaw problems with government spending.
Interestingly, President James Monroe in 1822 alluded the same fear in a “Special Message” to Congress.
President Monroe said, “It is, however, my opinion that the (power the budget) should be confined to great national works only, since if it were unlimited it might be productive of evil.”
As evil as it may be, it happens nearly every year and this year is no exception.
In order to be classified as waste, CAGW says pork barrel projects must meet at least one or more of the following criteria.
A project becomes pork if (1) requested by only one chamber of Congress, (2) is not specifically authorized, (3) is not competitively awarded, (4) is not requested by the president, (5) greatly exceeds the president’s request or previous year’s spending, (6) it is not subject to a congressional hearing, and (7) if it serves in a special or local interest.
Other defense earmarks also included in the budget list 31 items for medical research that are unrelated to persons serving in the military.
The Navy received over $500 million in funding for the Littoral Combat Ship program which many in the navy has nicknamed “little crappy ship.” It’s said to have been a disaster from the beginning with serious design flaws, an absence of firepower, and a lack of survivability.
Alabama Congressman Bradley Byrne won that battle because the ship is produced in an Alabama naval yard and ship builders would be out of work.
The Navy also wants to cancel an alternative fuel program but Congress gave an additional hundreds of millions of dollars to continue that program even though it is under-performing and costs more that regular petroleum fuel.
Another $54 million was set aside for entrepreneurial programs through the Small Business Administration. This program provides funds to start businesses which compete with other private businesses in an area, i.e. a pizza parlor loan for a business to compete with other pizza parlors in a specific area.
There are also millions of dollars set aside to help premier wedding and event centers in New York thanks to Rep. Peter King, as well as several programs labeled by many government officials as unwarranted, corporate subsidies. Some of these programs have default records and lost millions of dollars in past years.
Maybe it’s the Kool-Aid they drink when they get to Washington; maybe it’s just the fact it’s not their money they are spending. Maybe we just need smarter members of Congress.
—
Jimmy Terrell is retired from a career in law enforcement and is a Winder city councilman. He can be reached at ejterrell65@gmail.com.

The U.S. Justice Department last week unsealed charges against Maria Butina, a 29-year-old Russian national who stands accused of acting as a Russian spy.
The court documents allege that, as early as 2015 and continuing through at least February 2017, Butina, who was arrested on July 15, worked under the direction of a high-level Russian government and banking official — identified by numerous media reports as Alexander Torshin — who was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in April.
The pair are accused of working together to infiltrate influential conservative political groups, chiefly the NRA, to establish “back channel” lines of communications with Republican politicians in an effort to advance the interests of the Russian Federation. Torshin initially brought Butina with him from Russia to the U.S. for meetings and big-ticket conservative events until she obtained a student visa in August to live here.
Butina was apparently quite effective in her mission, forming strong ties with high-ranking organization officials.
In what seems like a plot line straight out of the recently-concluded hit television series “The Americans,” Butina went as far as initiating an intimate relationship with an “American political operative” who media reports have identified as Republican activist and NRA member Paul Erickson. She helped found the Russian group The Right to Bear Arms, which allowed her to form alliances with key NRA executives, including former president David Keene who was part of a group that traveled to Moscow for a Right to Bear Arms event.
Typically, in today’s politics, the NRA is most outspoken — and spoken of — when the latest mass shooting in this country triggers another round of gun control debates. But the organization has been silent on the Butina arrest and has sought to downplay its ties to her and Russia. NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch denied a report by progressive publication Mother Jones earlier this year detailing an NRA delegation’s trip to Moscow. But last week, when approached by the same news organization, she downplayed it as not an “official trip,” though it included Keene, NRA vice president Pete Brownell and other organization committee members and major donors.
It is becoming painfully obvious the NRA has a significant Russia problem. The group spent more than $30 million in the 2016 presidential election in opposition to Hillary Clinton and in support of Trump, and the FBI is currently investigating whether a significant chunk of that money was Russian money funneled by Torshin. That was only part of a more than $100 million spending surge by the group in 2016.
But it appears another group of people may also be deeply affected by this situation.
Butina, during her private correspondence with Erickson, was correct in her assessment of the organization’s influence on conservative politicians as she described it as “the largest sponsor of the elections to the U.S. Congress.”
Which brings us to congressional Republicans and their reactions to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election interference, which have ranged from outright attempts to discredit it to indifference.
Trump was widely condemned by members of both parties for his performance in last week’s Helsinki summit where he refused to hold Vladimir Putin accountable for his country’s actions. (Sorry, saying he left out an apostrophe and two letters once he was back across the Atlantic doesn’t begin to explain away the number of statements he has made for over a year.) And yet, the verbal admonishments from House and Senate Republicans haven’t translated into any real action. There has been no censure against the president. And for all their talk of supporting our intelligence community’s unanimous conclusions, every single Republican member of the GOP-controlled House voted against increased election security spending last week — even as the Director of National Intelligence likens the “blinking red light” warning signs of a repeat Russian performance in this year’s midterms to the 9/11 warning signs the Clinton and Bush administrations missed.
So, who are these congressmen looking out for? Maybe it’s themselves? Republicans generally wear an “A” rating from the NRA as a badge of honor and not having the organization’s blessing is a nonstarter for any serious Republican candidacy.
Earlier this year, the New York Times reported the top 10 senators and top 10 representatives who have received the most NRA funding throughout their careers. They’re all Republicans. In the senate, John McCain was No. 1. No. 2 was Richard Burr, of North Carolina, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee which has been conducting its own investigation into Russian interference.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden has accused Republicans on the committee of stymieing attempts to look more closely at the investigation’s money trails.
If true, that says a lot about how far the tentacles of the case against Butina and the NRA’s involvement with Russian operatives may extend.
—
Scott Thompson is editor of the Barrow News-Journal. He can be reached at sthompson@barrownewsjournal.com.

It doesn’t seem like the kids have any summer anymore. Starting school Aug. 1 seems unreal.
I remember we always started the day after Labor Day and we went until the first week of June. Football practice is well underway. With the high temps, it is so important to stay hydrated with water, Gatorade or Powerade.
—
This week’s recipes are ones that friends have sent me to try that are keepers.
Banana bread has always been one of my favorite breads to make and share. When I was sent one made into bars, I had to try it. This is great for sharing with others. Great substitute for those not crazy about chocolate.
Banana Bread Bars
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups (3 or 4) ripe bananas, mashed
2 tsps. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Brown Butter Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsps. vanilla extract
3 Tbsps. milk
Directions
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour 15x10-inch jelly roll pan. For the bars, in a large bowl beat together sugar, sour cream, butter and eggs until creamy. Blend in bananas and vanilla extract. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Blend for 1 minute. Stir in walnuts. Spread batter evenly into pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Meanwhile for frosting - heat butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until boiling. Let the butter turn a delicate brown and remove from heat immediately. Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk. Whisk together until smooth (it should be thicker than a glaze but thinner than frosting). Using a spatula spread the brown butter frosting over the warm bars (the frosting will be easier to spread while the bars are still warm.)
—
I think my friends know I like making bars or cookies since they are easy to make and share. Another great bar recipe was sent to me as a hint to make them for a special friend.
Caramel
Butter
Pecan Bars
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup cold butter
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 (12 ounce) jar caramel ice cream topping, warmed
1 (11 1/2 ounce) pkg. milk chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour and brown sugar in a bowl, cut in butter until crumbly. Press into bottom of an ungreased 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Top with pecans and drizzle warm caramel topping evenly over pecans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until caramel is bubbly. Place on wire rack. Sprinkle with chocolate chips; let stand 5 minutes then spread chocolate chips over caramel pecan layer.
Cool for at least 6 hours at room temperature or until chocolate has set (chilling may cause chocolate to appear dull). Cut into bars.
—
One of my favorite flavors has to be lemon. I have several older friends that I share bake goods with that love lemon. This recipe is perfect for sharing. Simple to make with a bold lemon flavor that is hard to resist.
Lemon Whippersnaps
Ingredients
1 (15.25 oz.) pkg. lemon cake mix with pudding in the mix
2 cups Cool Whip
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp. lemon zest
2 Tbsps. lemon juice
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Combine cake mix, Cool Whip, egg, lemon zest and lemon juice in a large bowl.
Stir until completely combined. Place powdered sugar in a small bowl.
Use a cookie scoop to scoop cookie dough.
Drop cookie dough into powdered sugar and roll to thoroughly coat. Place on the parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
Let cool for several minutes on the cookie sheet before moving to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.
—
I love this next recipe. It’s a little twist to just plain old brownies. Really fun to make. Kids will love them after school as a treat.
Brownie Bomb Bars
Ingredients
Bottom layer
1 box brownie mix (follow box instructions fully and for cooking times)
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
Middle layer
1 jar jet puffed marshmallow cream
Top layer
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup peanut butter
3 cups Rice Krispies
Directions
Spray a 9x13-inch pan with cooking spray. Bake brownies as directed on box and allow to fully cool.
Spread jet-puffed marshmallow cream. Place chocolate chips and peanut butter in a medium sized microwave bowl and microwave until well blended, stopping at 1-minute intervals.
Once melted, stir in Rice Krispies and spread evenly over marshmallow layer. Cover and chill for two hours before cutting into squares. Yields 24-36 bars.
—
Joyce Jacks is a native of Barrow County and a graduate of Winder-Barrow High School, Athens Technical College, and the University of Georgia. She can be reached at georgiagirl2424@yahoo.com.

When I was a kid, we used to laugh at my granddaddy’s way of calling out to our grandma.
He’d holler out, “Norma!” And wherever in the house she would be, she’d holler back, “Whoo-ooo!” in kind of a sing-song way.
If he heard a clap of thunder, he’d holler for her, and then he’d say, “Comin’ up a cloud!”
I can still hear him saying it now, and it has become a family thing now. When storms threaten, or we hear thunder, someone will call out, “Norma!” Someone else will holler, “Whoooo?” and then we’ll all say, “Comin’ up a cloud!”
If you’re from around these parts, you probably say the same thing! Back in those days, we didn’t have all the weather technology on our black-and-white televisions with the rabbit-ear antennae. We had the old siren on top of the water tank in town to alert us of impending tornadoes. Other than that, we pretty much forecast our own weather by looking outside. If it was cloudy, we might get rain. If it was dark, cloudy and the wind was blowing, we’d probably get rain.
And so, we’d wait and watch. Our soap operas weren’t interrupted by Glenn Burns telling us all the technical mumbo jumbo about the storms. We’d never heard of BTI and wind velocity, red-next-to-green and all the other things they talk about (incessantly) during bad weather. But we did know, if the siren started blowing, to grab the kids and the pets, head to the basement and get under the piano.
Technology has changed everything for us nowadays, mostly for the good. While I do get annoyed when Glenn and Brad talk for hours about the anatomy of a storm, I do realize that this up-to-the-minute information might be the one thing that can save a life, and if it does, then missing a few minutes, or an episode, of This Is Us is well worth it.
I do wish they’d save the theatrics, though, and just give warning to the folks who need it. Most of us really don’t understand, and don’t care, about all that technology. Sad thing is, the folks in immediate danger probably already lost their television anyhow, especially if they have satellite. I’m thankful that I’ve never had to go to bed wearing my shoes and bike helmet, as they are recommending these days.
I was out of town at a crafting exposition over the weekend and only caught a snippet of the news, but one of the vendors mentioned that bad weather was headed in for Saturday. Sure enough, very early Saturday morning I was awakened by vivid lightning and booming thunder. I must have slept through the first part as it was over pretty quickly.
Then late Saturday afternoon as I was getting ready to go out for the evening, I got a weather alert on my phone. I had no idea there was bad weather around me, and decided to hurry on up and try to beat the storm. My brother plays in a Journey tribute band, and they were playing at the Georgia Theater and I was determined to go. They played there a couple of years ago, but it was when our dad was awaiting emergency surgery, so I didn’t go. My brother played the show, but his heart wasn’t in it, as he was equally as worried about our dad.
We were both looking forward to this gig. I had never been to the venue, and was excited about a night out with the band. As I was traveling, I thought I had time to stop for a quick bite at a drive-through. I was wrong. The storm came barreling through while I was in line, with sideways rain, horrid thunder and lightning, and marble-sized hail. The trees were bending over sideways, and there were a few scary moments.
Luckily, it passed quickly. And I’m so very thankful that I decided to stop, or else I would have been driving. So instead of outrunning the storm, I followed it into Athens. It was easy to see its path, as there was debris everywhere, traffic lights were out and businesses were dark. As I got closer to downtown, streetlights were dark as well. I was worried that the venue would be without power as many of the businesses downtown were also dark.
By some miracle, the Georgia Theater still had power, as well as a few other places in town, even though the rest of the block (including the parking deck) were without power. That was pretty weird.
After the (fabulous!) show, the lights were still out and much of downtown was dark. Didn’t keep the night-lifers away, though. Everyone was walking around using their phones as flashlights. As I drove up Prince Avenue, it was mostly dark as well. It was a really creepy feeling! Emergency vehicles were all around, working hard to restore order.
We often take light for granted. We don’t realize just how dark it can be until we are without it. Things look a lot better when daylight arrives. Sometimes we have storms in our lives, and things can seem pretty dark. If we can hold on until the storm breaks, things will look better in the daylight.
Sometimes we have to take a look and assess the damage, collect ourselves and begin the clean-up process. If we can remember to look for The Light, then things won’t seem so dark, and we will be given the strength we need to endure the clean-up process.
So, whether it’s a rainy night in Georgia or a stormy time in your life, just hold on. Daylight’s coming, and the storms will pass. Here’s to hoping Glenn and Brad will get to take it easy for a while!
—
Cathy Watkins Bennett is a Barrow County native and a graduate of Winder-Barrow High School. Send comments about this column to
bencath@aol.com.

On the political scene today, there is a clamor from certain quarters for the government to offer college to all its citizens.
And by the way, it should be with no strings attached — to be exact, free. What a noble idea to espouse! No worry about paying this bill or that charge for future college graduates. Sounds inviting on its surface but, like anything in life, we are always cautioned “you get what you pay for.”

Any appreciation?
Winning the lottery may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. Why? First, you got lucky. Secondly, money coming your way was “earned” by you making the herculean effort of going down to the local gas station or convenience store and forking over a couple of bucks. You spent five minutes of your life to gain financial independence.
Now google what happened to the thousands of people who won their state’s lottery. One report said, “Whether they win $500 million or $1 million, about 70 percent of lotto winners lose or spend all their money in five years or less.” The money came too easily and it left the same way. If you had acquired the same amount of greenbacks by hard work, perseverance and dedication, the odds of your keeping your fortune go up dramatically. You have a vested interest developed over the course of years, not just “the luck of the draw.”
Here’s another analogy hitting closer to home. Do you give your children an allowance? If so, is there a list of chores to be completed first before money changes hands? If you gave your kids money with no strings attached, you just failed in one critical aspect of parenting. Your children, going forward, will have less appreciation for the value of money. They didn’t have to put forth any effort, didn’t have to go out of their way, to get legal tender. They just held out their hand.

Common sense
If you give “free college” to every Tom, Dick or Harriet, you’ve just opened up the floodgates. No longer does the family have to sit down and do a cost-to-benefit analysis. Planning on how to work around the challenges moving forward goes by the way side.
New colleges will be popping up all over the place to feed at the public trough.
And do you really think the existing bastions of higher learning will continue to discipline themselves to have lofty teaching ideals, knowing there will now be a never-ending line of individuals coming into their system, all with guaranteed money attached.
My prediction would be many of them will gradually become less concerned about maintaining high standards.
The government pays for college with what? Taxes, right? Taxes from whom? You, the taxpayer. They are taking money from someone who earned it and giving it to someone who just got in line. How can anyone truly appreciate getting tens of thousands of dollars when all they had to do is show up.
Two other concerns come up on my radar. First, just wondering how dedicated will this avalanche of students be when it comes to buckling down and hitting the books?
Secondly, in the long run, how valuable will a college degree be viewed by the business world if everybody, including their brother and sister, can get one?

Your point?
What do all these speculations have to do with taking care of your primary asset? Well, we are talking about a person’s mindset. We are told through all media forms eating right and exercising are paramount to long term health.
Unfortunately, when it comes to one’s health, the general population pays lip service. Three-fourths of we the people are planning on getting around to it later.
Reality often sets in when you wake up on your 50th birthday. You begin to notice the body has become somewhat challenged. Things don’t work as well as they did the day before. The reason: So far, you have invested little time into your health. It wasn’t a priority. The picture is now changing. So, what do you do?
The sad reality is too many of us start looking for that winning lottery ticket, be it a “lose 30 pounds in 30 days” workout video, a supplement which will do the trick or a diet that will transform your body sooner than later.
What can we find out there that will, in short order, turn our health issue around and get us back to “normal?” We end up looking for something to give us immediate results, requiring minimal effort.

Consistency
is the key
What works in life also works for your health — meaning steady, consistent effort over time, committing to a strategy. You may have heard how numerous contestants from “The Biggest Loser” have, after leaving the limelight, regained all the weight they’d previously dropped.
Why? The way they lost the weight was based on an unrealistic methodology. Twelve weeks of intense effort and all will be well! That’s the ticket…not.
Quick fixes rarely accomplish the goal for which they were intended. Mapping out an exercise regimen you know will work is fundamental.
Learning a nutrition plan which makes sense to you (see my “The 80-percent Rules” column) is essential.
The only way you appreciate what you’ve accomplished is through being disciplined. As I remind my clients all the time, when a particular exercise becomes challenging, “If it was easy, anyone could do it.”
Statistics bear out you are far more likely to stick with a program in which you have invested time and resources. As you may have ascertained by now, the hard part will be sticking with it. In other words, you’ve got to earn it!
Good luck and good health!
—
Rick Almand can train you out of Anytime Fitness (Winder and Auburn locations) or in the privacy of your home. He can be contacted at 404-312-9206 or Rick@UltimateBest.net. His website is BabyBoomersSurvivalGuide.net.

Intense, microburst rainfalls over the last two months have led to significant street and yard flooding issues in the Old Town Winder area that have irked residents and have city officials examining ways to try to mitigate them.
“The City of Winder is aware of stormwater complaints resulting from unusually intense rainfall events that have affected our region,” city officials said in a statement this week. “We are continuing to evaluate these areas where complaints have been received and work with the community toward improvements to the stormwater system.”
The flooding in the Old Town areas of Mayor’s Walk Park, the railroad underpass on Center Street, Stephens Street and others was a topic of discussion last Thursday during the city council’s utilities committee monthly meeting.
Trey Crisp, project manager for ESG Operations, the city’s utilities contractor, said the city is putting together a proposal to remodel the entire 110-acre basin that serves the area of Mayor’s Walk Park and drains to the low point between North Center Street and Woodlawn Avenue.
Since May 19, when the first of the recent string of heavy rainstorms fell, the city has completed half of a survey, detailing pipe networks and infrastructure, from Hamilton Avenue to North Center Street, Crisp said.
“What we’ve learned is that basin right there flows downstream, but (the infrastructure) that is downstream isn’t quite adequate,” Crisp said. “We’re looking in the area at what structures might be able to alleviate some of these flooding issues.”
Crisp said oversized pipe that had degraded over time was at some point replaced with undersized pipe, leading to issues in certain areas such as North Center Street and near the Midland Superette on Midland Avenue.
“We’ve got some definite issues in these areas, none that can’t be alleviated,” Crisp said.
“But in order to really understand what we need, before any pipe is uninstalled, we need to determine what’s going to be adequate and whether we design for 10 years or 25 years.”
In other cases, Crisp said, debris left in yards and ditches has contributed to the problem.
The May 19 rain in the Mayor’s Walk Park area, for example, washed leaves and sticks on top of the water grates, Crisp said.
“With one of the grates, as soon as the debris was removed, it was a vortex and all that water was sucked down,” he said. “The pipe infrastructure is not in the best shape but it’s clear. It’s just a matter of getting water to the pipe.
“So we’re working to develop a bulleted list of tips for homeowners to follow to help with keeping those drop inlets clean from debris.”

Property owners in the City of Winder will see a new stormwater fee from the city on their tax bills this fall.
The city council, during a called meeting Tuesday, approved the creation of a stormwater utility and the levying of an assessment and collection of stormwater service fees to operate the city’s stormwater management programs. The vote was 3-0 with councilman Jimmy Terrell abstaining. Councilmen Chris Akins and Michael Healan were absent. The council waived the second reading of the ordinance establishing the utility. City officials said during a council utilities committee meeting last week that the ordinance needed to be approved by August in order for the fees to appear on tax bills this year.
Stormwater service fees will be based upon an estimate of stormwater runoff from a property, according to the ordinance. The council also approved a base fee schedule for each classification of property, which is as follows:
•$278 per acre for commercial property
•$247 per acre for industrial
•$31 per acre for agricultural
•$123 per acre for multi-family residential
•$68 per parcel for duplexes
•$50 per unit for condos
•$62 per parcel for single-family residential
•$14 per parcel for platted lots with roads
•$185 per acre for institutional
•$4.63 per acre for forest/open land
•$217 per acre for government/office building
•$31 per acre for parks and recreation.
See more in the July 25 edition of the Barrow News-Journal.